Can anybody explain Gnosticism to me?

I know that Gnosticism is regarded as Heresy by many biblical scholars.

My take on this theory is that it basically implies that all physical matter is inherently evil and that is why Jesus never had a physical body because God would not take a form of evil.

It also states that there are 2 deities. 1 is a lesser God known as demureGEho created human flesh to trap divine spirits and is ignorant to the fact that he is not the real God. 2nd diety is actually the real and divine God.

Is this summary correct? Can you add something ? This theory interests me alot.
Please,Atheists, if you don't have anything to add feel free to steer clear. I am agnostic myself but that doesn't keep me from being interested in all sorts of beliefs and mythologies.

Gnosticism stems from the word "nosies" is Greek for knowledge.

With that, I consider myself gnostic because I am on a quest to understand things and gain knowledge.

the idea of demureGEeveloped WAY before gnosticism. It was conceived by plato. To gnostics, it is the lesser God, who created mankind and is responsible for creation. But to Plato, demiurge is just science as God. Like the law of physics is the natural law.

Sorry I can't really expand much on that.

Whoa, What a steaming pile of maggot infested goat shit.

The concept of gnostic is about as broad as pagan. There is no singular belief system that falls under the term.

Basically, gnostic had reference to "hidden knowledge" which was passed from generation to generation verbally and not committed to writing.

A wide number of beliefs, including those you've cited, are credited as being gnostic, but it goes far beyond that, and, like heresy, refers to anything not "officially" sanctioned by the early "catholic fathers" of the first four centuries of the modern era.

You pretty much have it - it's like god's little brother got into his play dough and made a world, we just happen to live in the little brothers play dough world.

If you would like to listen to some on line lectures by one of the top Gnostic scholars of the past 60 years or so, Steven Hoeller. You might get a better idea if you listen for yourself.

http://www.gnosis.org/lectures.html The lectures are listed on the left side of the page and also down the middle.

Here is the main page that has the actual texts of the Nag Hammadi Library Codex manuscripts and scrolls that were discovered. You can find them all by clicking on the left menu where it says Alphabetical Index.
http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/nhl.html

heard abet gnostic gospels

Gnosticism is the original conspiracy theory that's based on secret knowledge that simply doesn't exist.

If you like fiction, have fun with gnosticism.

For the truth, stick with authentic Catholic theology, because it's the best there is, and it's based on the whole truth.

http://douglawrence.wordpress.com/